This invention relates generally to reducing exposure of computer systems to malicious content.
Malicious content on a network, such as the Internet, poses a threat to systems and users accessing the network. Malicious content may infect computer systems to cause the computer to perform undesired behavior, such as reducing performance, obtaining sensitive files from the computer, and intercepting account information. Past methods of infecting a user's computer typically focused on attacking a user's passive computer, for example by identifying open ports on a user's computer. More recent methods include convincing a user to access a system containing malicious content. For example, a user may be presented with a website mimicking the behavior of a legitimate website, or the user may access a link that appears to be for a legitimate service. In addition to user behavior, applications or other programs on the computing device may request access to a network address that contains malicious content, whether intentionally or inadvertently (i.e., the network address was expected to contain safe content by the user or application author).